5 HDDs - help and advice please

[alvinezz]

Hi all,

I possess 5 Seagate Barracuda HDDs (2010 models), which had been used before but all the data have been wiped.

These are their models and capacities:

1. Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 (P/N: 9JU138-302)
Firmware: CC1H
Capacity: 1.5 TB
2. Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 (P/N: 9YP142-303)
Firmware: JC45
Capacity : 500 GB
3. Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (P/N: 98J14G-308)
Firmware: 3.AAK
Capacity: 320 GB
4. Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 (P/N: 9CC132-302)
Firmware: 3.AAE
Capacity: 160 GB
5. Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 (P/N: 9CC131-302)
Firmware: 3.AAE
Capacity: 80 GB

What will be the best way to use these HDDs?

At first, I was thinking to create a NAS with RAID5 or RAID10 configuration, connect it to my router so I can access files from both computer(s) and my Samsung TV. Also, so that I can use it as a backup storage for my files in my computer.

However, while I dont have any experience building NAS nor any RAID config, based on what I read in the internet, it is strongly not recommended to build RAID arrays using HDDs with different models and capacities. Is that right?

This leaves me zero idea on how to use these HDDs.
Any ideas / suggestions / recommendations will be much appreciated!

Basically, my (ideal) goals are:
1. Use these HDDs as extra storage for my computers, while I can also use it for backup storage
2. Able to access the storage via network
3. Able to stream media files to my Samsung LED TV (Series 6 2010 model)

Thanks heaps in advance.

Cheers

 

[thiggins]

You don't have to use multiple drives in RAID. Many NASes let you use set each drive as a separate volume. The downside is that you have to manage the storage space yourself.

You can use different capacity and manf drives in a RAID volume. But volume size will be determined by the smallest drive with normal RAID.

You might look at Synology NASes, which support SHR.

 

[wkearney99]

1. Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 (P/N: 9JU138-302) Capacity: 1.5 TB
2. Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 (P/N: 9YP142-303) Capacity : 500 GB
3. Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (P/N: 98J14G-308) Capacity: 320 GB
4. Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 (P/N: 9CC132-302) Capacity: 160 GB
5. Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 (P/N: 9CC131-302) Capacity: 80 GB

What will be the best way to use these HDDs?

Best use? Give all but #1 away. RAID requires drives of matching sizes, none of yours match. Then there's drive speed, the rest of the drives are going to be considerably slower. And don't forget about power consumption, older drives tend to require more power.

Your best bang for the buck would probably be to add two more 1.5tb drives and set up a RAID5. You'd get 3GB of storage and have a 1 drive failure safety. You could use 4 1.5 drives with one as a hot spare, if whatever you use as the server supports it. That way you'd be able to survive a single drive failure and then have the system automatically start rebuilding with the hot spare.

An old PC running FreeNAS might be a fine way to get started.

Otherwise you could set them up just an individual drives and handle copying files to them on your own. Again, this would depend on what you used to serve the drives.

I'm serious, the drive performance and power consumption on older drives makes them pretty much useless going forward for anything new.